The present invention relates to continuous form printers, and more specifically to paper guide means for ensuring stable image formation in electrophotographic continuous form printers.
Conventional electrophotographic printers using fanfold continuous paper are able to feed the paper in both forward and reverse directions, in order that a printed page may be viewed or so that the generation of idle pages between print jobs is minimized.
However, as the paper passes through a fixing device to fuse a toner image to the paper, blank pages which will be printed upon also pass through the fixing device. These blank pages may undergo deformation when being heated or when being drawn back into the printer to be printed. Specifically, normal paper may bow or wrinkle in a center portion, and label paper may warp or droop in a center portion. These deformations can cause improper printing, end poor image formation when the pages are ultimately printed upon.
For these reasons there exists a need for an electrophotographic continuous form printer that is able to compensate for central deformation of retracted sheets such that printing is reliable and stable.